City's block grant lower -- but it's a good thing

Crime is down, so fed money is shrinking

For each of the past seven years, St. Augustine has collected less money from the federal government to fight crime.

But that's not a bad thing.

Chief David Shoar of the St. Augustine Police Department said the reason is simple: Crime is down.

"We've seen dramatic decreases in violent crime in St. Augustine over the last few years," Shoar said. "This is not only a credit to the police department, but to the community as well."

At Wednesday's City Hall budget meeting, officials learned that the city would receive only $32,858 this year from the annual Local Law Enforcement Block Grant.

That's a 10 percent drop from last year.

The city still must match that amount with $3,651, for a total grant award of $36,510 for 2002.

St. Augustine got a total of $60,390 in 1996, the first year the grants were awarded.

The money comes from a total $340 million the government will give to U.S. law enforcement agencies this year.

According to St. Augustine police Detective Commander Stephen Fricke, the award is calculated from the average of violent crime over the past three years, as reported to the FBI.

Violent crimes include murder, sexual battery, robbery and aggravated assault -- and St. Augustine's numbers of those dropped from 241 in 1990 to 122 in 2002.

"Over the past 10 years, crime went down 88 percent in St. Augustine," Fricke said.

"The population that engages in (criminal) behavior has diminished over the years."

Many factors helped, he said. Especially important was building more state prisons to house repeat offenders.

Fricke also gave credit to the end of judicial sentencing guidelines, an improved national economy, more police officers on the street and using a different grant to start a new career criminal unit.

The money given to the 49-officer department was used to purchase firearms, computer equipment and other technology, Fricke said.

"Now, a city resident can e-mail an individual officer about a case or with a question, or they can leave our voice mail system to leave messages," he said. "We've also bought long-barrel AR-15 assault rifles. They're on their way in. Most of the automation you see in the department now was all done with this grant money. It's made our officers far more effective."

City Manager Bill Harriss said he was "happy as the dickens" that the city's getting less money on the grant.

"Our police officers are doing a heck of a job. The money will go to communities which need it more," Harriss said.

Shoar said that, while he'd like to have more money for equipment, he'll take less because that means fewer residents were victimized in St. Augustine.